In many situations soft tissue may need to be attached (or re-attached) to bone. As an example, a ligament or tendon may have been detached from bone as the result of injury, and appropriate repair may require re-attaching the ligament or tendon to its host bone. The use of sutures together with one or suture anchors is one way of attaching soft tissue to bone. Suture anchors generally include a body that is deployed in bone with one or more sutures extending from the body. The sutures may then be used to secure the soft tissue to the bone, e.g., by passing the sutures through the tissue and then knotting the suture so as to hold the tissue in position relative to the bone.
Many suture anchors are configured such that the sutures need to be attached to the suture anchor either at the time of manufacture or in the operating room prior to use. In either case, the sutures are attached to the body of the suture anchor prior to deployment of the suture anchor in the body. As a result, a surgeon may be constrained by the configuration of the suture anchor once it has been deployed in the body. In other words, with many suture anchor constructions, the number and types of sutures selected by the surgeon prior to deployment in the bone significantly constrains the choices available to the surgeon after the suture anchor has been deployed in the bone. This can be a significant limitation, since in many circumstances the surgeon may wish to adjust a procedure in response to tissue conditions which may only become apparent after the procedure has commenced.
A suture anchor has been suggested that permits sutures to be loaded into the suture anchor after the suture anchor has been deployed in the bone. Such a suture anchor is disclosed in U.S. Publication No. 2009/0088798 by Snyder et al. The suture anchor disclosed in the '798 application includes a body having a proximal end, a distal end, an outer surface, and an axial recess extending from the proximal end toward the distal end. A flexible finger or crossbar extends from the body and across the axial recess such that when a distally directed force is applied to the crossbar, a suture may be passed by the crossbar and when a proximally directed force is applied to the suture, the crossbar is captured to limit proximal motion of the crossbar and thereby capture the suture.
The inventive concepts disclosed herein are directed to a suture anchor similar in construction and function, but which is formed from a blank.